A Regency Turban Tutorial

When it came time to try and hide my then half turquoise coloured hair (now half blonde) for a regency costume, I started searching around for turban hats. There are a lot of different styles and some that I would dearly love to have a go at some time, but for my first turban, I took it to it's simplest form and whipped up a really quick one. I was really pleased how it turned out, so when I made a couple for my mum for her Birthday (she does not have much of an aptitude for doing her hair), I decided to take a few shots and put together a tutorial.

Supplies
- fabric, approximately 80cm (mainly because I make bias as the turban band). So far mine have been made out of dupion silk, but a lightweight cotton or silk would be just as lovely.
- matching thread
- contrast thread
- trimmings

Step 1.
Patterning - I don't actually have a pattern for my turbans, but it would be simple to make one. It is simply two pieces. The first is a circle as the crown. I cut mine with an 4" radius. I simply fold my fabric into 4 or 8, measure each edge and draft the curve of the circle, then cut.

The second piece is the band, I make this as bias cut fabric so that it will fit tight to my head, but still have room for any movement and with the intention that it will not give me a headache. This is cut by simply folding the selvedge edge of the fabric to the cut (hopefully straight) edge of the fabric and cutting along the 45 degree angle. I then measure out about 2 -3 inches from this and cut. How much you cut will depend on how wide you want your turban band. The finished width will be half this measurement minus 2 cm seam allowance.

Step 2.
Unfold your crown puff. Change the setting on your sewing machine to a long stitch and loosed the tension. Using a contrast thread, sew around the outside of your puff at about 6mm. Sew another row on the inside the width of your machine foot away from this. Leave the ends of the thread long and do not back stitch. This is your gathering thread.

Step 3.
Press. You will have a nightmare time later trying to iron a sewn in puff, so make sure to do it now and get out any unwanted creases.

Step 4.
Make your bias band. Line up the ends of the bias and sew the wrong sides together. Open out so that you have one continuous piece. (depending on the size of your head and the length of your bias strip, you may not need to join). Iron the seam flat. Fold your bias in half and press. Wrap the piece of bias around your head where you want the turban to sit. Cut to the necessary length, but make sure that you leave a seam allowance. Open out the fold, and sew the ends together to give one circle.

Step 5.
Mark the four equal points on the circle puff and the band (this will help you make sure that you gather up the puff evenly) Gather the puff to fit the band by pulling on one side of the long threads (the bobbin side works better). Match up your four points. Make sure that you have changed your machine settings back to normal sewing and put in your matching thread. Sew the puff to the band with a 1cm seam. Pull out the gathering threads (the reason I use a contrast is so that it is easy to see which thread to pull out).

Step 6.
Press a 1cm seam allowance on the other half of the bias band. Turn this to the inside, encasing raw edges of puff and whip stitch in place.

Step 7.
Decorate. Feathers, flowers, tassels, beads. You really can go to town.

Step 8.
Wear. I always make sure that the puff is pulled one way and not sitting up on top - that leads to shower cap territory.

And there you have it. Your very own shower cap, er, Regency Turban. :D

Hats off!

It's really worrying now that I realise Supanova is over for April and JAFA is only a few short days away. I think I have it all under control. My gowns are done and now I am just finalising headwear. Speaking of which, I have just finished my Georgian picnic hat. As in, the hat I am intending to wear with my green skirt and jacket ensemble. I am proud to say that this hat is made entirely by hand. I was a pain to do and my fingers are a little sore, but it was well worth it. I am very pleased with how it has come together. It is made from black wool felt and buckram.

My first problem in making this hat was that I didn't have a pattern. I was using a sketch from a book as my guide of how I wanted it to look. So I pulled out a pattern that I did have from an Edwardian hat and made a few adjustments. The crown had to by higher, so I extended that. And the brim had to be bigger. I wanted my hat to be massively large. I ended up adding an extra 5cm (or 2inches) to the brim. This did make for some challenges later on. I also needed my hat to have no visible machine stitching and I really don't like using glue on my historical hats either (been there, done that, hated the hat!). I won't go into how I made it because there is a whole lot of babbling going on there and no photos to go with it. But all in all my hat has turned out well. I even hand hemmed the silk hat bow. The flowers are attached to pins so that they can easily be removed and I have just bought some large feathers to go in it that are also removable. The idea being that I can easily re-trim the hat and that none of the decorations will get squashed in my suitcase.

At any rate, this should keep my face shielded from the sun and here is hoping that it looks awesome as well. I am considering actually making up the pattern and a full photographic guide to sell on etsy. Maybe once I get back from JAFA. Of course, I will need to work out how to line the wretched thing. Mine doesn't have a lining because I found a lovely instruction on-line quoting that Georgian hats generally had no lining. It doesn't look the best on the inside, but at least it's certainly not going to fall apart. It will be interesting to see how I fit in a car with my huge skirts, wig and hat. :)

Bye Bye Weekend

Well, my weekend powered along and disappeared before I knew it. On Saturday afternoon, I headed on out to a Kaleidoscope Dance evening where we were facilitating the dancing for a Birthday Party. I dug out my pink cotton and silk regency gown that I made for JAFA earlier this year. I am so glad that I actually got to wear one of my evening gowns for something, it doesn't happen often, but I saw the opportunity and thought why not. And this was the first time that I had done my hair in regency since I got it chopped off. I'm not sure if I mentioned it at all, but I went from almost waist length hair back to a short 1920s style bob. It has grown a bit since I got it cut, but I am still liking it, and actually enjoying finding new ways to style my hair. Anyway, I whipped up into some hot rollers for an hour in the afternoon, and once I had some curl to it, I pinned up on top of my head (as much as one can), added some pearl tipped pins and some fake roses. I was actually very pleased with how my hair turned out. I didn't end up taking that many photos, but here are the couple that I did get...


On the sewing front, I spent Saturday morning cutting out my fabric. I ended up using almost all of the 6 metres of white muslin. I did flat line the back of the bodice, sleeves and waistband with cotton voile though, just to give it a bit more body. I think where all the fabric got used up though was in the skirts. Both front and back are very full to give a soft gathered floaty sort of appearance, but I also decided to build in a petticoat. Because of the shape of the bodice in the front, I will be unable to wear my existing petticoat or stays underneath the dress, and with the muslin being so thin, I thought it prudent to add an extra layer. It's one of the concessions that you tend to make with muslin. You want the floatiness of the fine fabric but you are also after some form of modesty. I guess I could have made a full length chemise to put underneath, and I may yet do so, but since I had enough fabric, building in a petticoat was just the easier method. On that note though, the petticoat is not as full as the skirt.

Yesterday afternoon (after my 2-hour-long 10 minute nap) I decided it was high time to get cracking on some more of the dress. I was bailed up all morning and lunch pampering my father with baking as it was father's day. I sat up into the late hours of the night sewing away. Currently, I have a put together bodice with sleeves and it is all sewn onto the underbust waistband. Tonight I am hoping to get the skirts sewn on, and then it is just a matter of finishing the back closure of the gown, gathering up the sleeves for decoration and hemming the dress. My plans are to get the gown itself finished this week so that I can spend Saturday getting a new bonnet and waist sash done. I just need to decide what colour I am going to use...



(I didn't realise that I had so many options until I dug them all out). And then comes the bonnet pattern option....



Opinions anyone?

JAFA Progress entry #10

After a sewing day at kasmith1970 today, I have made more progress on my next JAFA project. Namely, my blue silk bonnet to match my blue silk spencer. I decided to go with something very simple so as to carry the colour through but not to detract from the prettiness and focus that I want the spencer to be. I used one of the timely tresses patterns to work this one up, and to carry through the embroidery, I added a little on each side. It's the only decoration on the bonnet in fact. I also decided after trying it on that I like how it sits without ties, so I am not going to add any of them either.

Now onto getting my ballgown done.

And another Christmas passes

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas day. Ours was spent inside with the house locked up and the aircon blasting. As usual, we do Christmas lunch, this year I cooked a pear and cranberry stuffed turkey, veggies and salad. We had a fantastic morning, and I got some wonderful gifts. Spending money for my trip to Japan in February, a new jug to replace my broken one and the book "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" to name a few. But what I love most about Christmas is picking a fantastic gift for someone.

My brother and I gave my dad an Art Nouveau mirror which he loves and this year I made quite a few gifts, so I though that I would share photos now that they have been given. My friend Sarah got the Christmas faerie cross-stitches...

And the rest were for my mum. Firstly I finished her regency day outfit by completing her bonnet and spencer. I adore the colour of the silk that we chose and it matches really well with the dress. And lastly, I made her a new Victorian corset. Her first one was always slightly too big, so I took the pattern in a bit at the bust, waist and length and remade it for her. I even added some steel bones into it this time (my first ones). She tried it on for me this morning and I am very pleased with how it looks.

1850s Pink Crinoline Bonnet

The next upcoming costuming event that I have is at Rockton House in Ipswich. This time, it will be 1850s again as it is related to the Q150 celebrations. Since I am not really a fan of the round crinoline, or really crinolines in general, I am going to re-wear my pink dress that I wore for the International Women's Day Fun Run. I actually would like to wear it again and hopefully get some nice photos of my outfit since I didn't get any last time. But to make it a little bit different, and since I had the time, I decided to make a bonnet to go with it. Last time I wore a silk and lace cap that I had made to match, but as the hat-loving freak that I am, I could not pass the opportunity to make a new bonnet. And it is finished...

It is completely made of silk and with a buckram base. The hot pink stuff actually matches my dress, and it is the same stuff that I used on the waist sash that I wear with it, and my reticule. It is bound in white silk, has pink silk ties and bows and pretty white flowers. I was tossing up using pink flowers instead of the white, but I just liked how stark the white ones looked. Plus the type of flower goes better with the perid. Now I just have to wait until I can wear it.

1830s bonnet

I am having some trouble getting into my next sewing project. I am supposed to be making my 1907 afternoon gown for next weekend, but no motivation to even fixing my pattern and cutting the jumperskirt. So instead, I decided to decorate my 1830s bonnet. I will be wearing it for History Alive later this year. So I really do not need it yet, but I really do love decorating bonnets. I have pictures. It is the bonnet I wore for our regency picnic last year, but it is better suited to 1830s, which I have been desperate to make ever since buying Wives and Daughters on DVD. So the bonnet is lovely silk, and I decorated it with white and blue bonnets, a white silk bow and pretty blue flowers.